A Misguided Proposal to Copyright Student Work

It’s not unusual for a company to claim that all work
created by employees, on or off site, belongs by copyright to the company. Some universities and government agencies
claim the same right to employees’ work, sharing to various extents in any
profit to accrue from it. But
a proposal by the Prince George’s (Virginia) County Board of Education claims
that all work by school employees and students
would be subject to copyright by the school system.

An argument can be made for claiming some degree of
ownership of work done by a company or agency’s employees. After all, employees have access not only to
technology, but also to the intellectual property of the company or agency
including its intellectual history – successes and failures – upon which to
build. In addition, the workplace
provides a forum for collaboration and exchange of ideas with similarly trained
employees. So if a research engineer
builds a better mousetrap while on the job or tinkering at home, she has the
advantage of the physical or intellectual resources the company or agency
provides.

But let’s consider the school. In my experience, the great majority of
teachers create curriculum and materials for their own students. On occasion a teacher will develop a book or
program that can be sold to a publisher and disseminated over a broader range
of professionals. In the rare event
that a teacher sells her materials, it would be highly unlikely that the work
would have been done at school because there is simply no time in the day to
accomplish that extra work. Of course,
if the teacher was paid by the district to develop curriculum or teaching
materials during time outside the classroom, the expectation is that the work
belongs to the school district. And even
when work is developed on the teacher’s own time, I can tell you (again from
experience) that no teacher will be able to quit her job and retire to the
Bahamas on royalties.

But the Prince George board wants to go beyond teachers’
work and claim all the work done by students.
There are more than a few problems with this idea. First of all, students are not employees of
the school district. In fact, parents, not
the school board, own the district, which exists through public funding. If a students develops a book or a video or
an app or a piece of art that is marketable, the district ought to rejoice in
the student’s success rather than suck up any profit that might come from it. Says David Cahn, an education activist who
regularly attends the school board meetings, “There is something inherently
wrong with that” [attempting to copyright kids’ work]. “There are better ways
to do this than to take away a person’s rights.” University of Missouri Professor David Rein,
a lawyer who teaches courses on intellectual property, says he’s never heard of
a school district claiming to be able to copyright students’ work.

The board has not yet voted on the proposal and there is
talk of amending it before it comes to vote.
It’s a foolish idea, one that will generate far more ill will than
revenue.